So, if the Milwaukee Brewers and Carlos Gomez had hopes of reducing his three-game suspension, why did Gomez decide Wednesday to drop his appeal and begin serving it, you ask.

"It is just the timing of things," manager Ron Roenicke explained Thursday morning. "It's uncomfortable going a period of time and not knowing when it is going to happen. We try to set up things for a series; I kind of like to know who is available.

"We knew it was coming. We just didn't know when. I just think the uncertainty of not knowing when it was coming" factored into the decision.

Truth be told, what really changed is that Gomez came out of a game Tuesday night with lower back spasms and would not have played Wednesday night. With the quick turnaround to a noon game Thursday, he likely would have sat out again.

So, if Gomez sat out two games, then the ruling came down Friday and all three games of his suspension were upheld, he'd end up missing five games. By dropping his appeal and beginning to serve the suspension Wednesday, his games missed were capped at three.

"I think that's some of it," said Roenicke. "I don't want to say that's exactly why he took it. The timing of it was OK, not knowing exactly when he was going to be OK."

The Brewers, and Gomez in particular, made it clear they thought the three-game suspension was too much for his role in the April 20 brawl in Pittsburgh. Does that mean some outrage had to be swallowed to accept the penalty?

"I wouldn't say the outrage on my part was the three-game suspension," said Roenicke. "It was the timing of it, but also compared to what (Pittsburgh players) got. I just think things should be as fair as they can be."

Pittsburgh's Travis Snider, suspended two games for coming off the bench and escalating the brawl, had his appeal denied and served his penalty before the series against the Brewers. Pirates catcher Russell Martin will serve his one-game suspension after he comes off the disabled list.

"Try all these cases and do it the same time if you can," said Roenicke. "If you are doing all these within two weeks and the teams are playing against each other, then do it when the teams are playing each other."

Roenicke said the good news was that Gomez's back was "way better" and he should be ready to return to action when eligible Saturday in Chicago.

No K-Rod concerns: After an absolutely brilliant first five weeks to the season, closer FranciscoRodriguez hit a pothole. First he blew a save Sunday by yielding a home run to New York's Mark Teixeira, then allowed three runs Wednesday to turn a 1-1 game into a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh.

Despite those hiccups, Roenicke has seen enough of Rodriguez — including their time together with the Los Angeles Angels — to know his closer will be OK. Roenicke also knows Rodriguez won't ask for a day off despite a heavy workload.

"I know the next time we have a save situation, he'll want to pitch," said Roenicke.

"You know the workload he can do and still be effective."

Roenicke knows his heavily used bullpen will be tested in the coming weeks by the schedule. The Brewers have just one off day the rest of this month (May 29) and just one off day (June 9) during the first 29 days of June.

"When you want to win games, you want the guys that are pitching the best in there," said Roenicke. "That's what we've done. We hope they continue to pitch a lot.

"But we'll have to change it up sometimes."

So far, so good: The Brewers hit the 41-game mark with a 26-15 record. Just one-fourth through the season, Roenicke thinks the Brewers have shown they have a good team. But he also knows there is a long way to go.

"I think this is the kind of club we have, but there are lots of teams that have played well for 40 games," said Roenicke. "It's too long of a season.

"And there's lots of teams that haven't played well through 40 games, and you know they're going to play well. When I look at some of the records of some of these teams, they're not .500 teams."

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